Welcoming over 1000 seniors from 34 schools around the greater Los Angeles area, Cerritos College hosted Senior Preview Day on Friday, April 4.
The event started off with a rally that took place in the gym, after which, students walked to Falcon Square where many academic departments and student clubs gave demonstrations at their booths and answered any questions seniors might have, also doing on-site admissions.
Along with all the excitement of welcoming the seniors, food was provided by In-N-Out and live entertainment by the Pop and Rock Ensemble band formed by students at Cerritos College.
The Cosmetology Club was a hit by providing free manicures to all the seniors and they sure did took advantage of it.
Alejandra Hernandez, from South East High School, was one of the participants. “It feels good,” she said after getting a manicure.
Hernandez, was amazed how the Cosmetology Club treated her. She also enjoyed exploring different clubs and can’t wait to join some of them when she starts in the fall.
Peter Esparza, from Norwalk High School, found some classes that would help him be more talkative and interesting, “The one I found was bio-physics and I’m thinking of signing up to that one,” Esparza said.
Esparza’s highlight was In-N-Out and said with a smile, “It was delicious, it was free and free meals taste better.”
Volunteers and tour guides were working hard and enjoyed showing seniors around campus.
Jody Lindsay, was the emcee for the rally and has participated multiple times with senior preview day saying, “I love it. I think it’s a great event and we offer a lot of programs that will benefit them in the long run and that’s the whole point to getting them knowledgeable of education and higher learning.”
One of many programs that was presented to students was the Puente program which is a year long program that focuses on English 52 and English 100.
Erik Garcia, vice-president of Puente explained the focus of the Puente program.
“A lot of students that make it to the UC level have struggled with the writing process, and what the Puente program does is help students get an early start in how to become a better writer because in UC’s they want to see how good your writing skills are and how to get your voice heard.”
Garcia, also mentioned that the focus on minority students, but every ethnicity is welcomed. It’s all about helping the students.
Dr. Linda Lacy was present at the event.
“It’s awesome! If I was a high school student and believe me it was a lot of years ago, if I’m a high school student I could feel the energy. This is a great event for them to understand that Cerritos College isn’t just all about classes, it’s also about extracurricular activities and the things they can do to have a good time,” Lacy said.
The event was a success and every year it gets bigger and more departments and clubs participate to make incoming students comfortable and offer them programs and resources to get them to succeed in the future.
Coordinator of School Relations, Shirley Arceo, was the one responsible for putting this successful event together.
“The outcome was exceptional, this was the largest turnout in the history of our event. The feedback that I received from the students and counselors were positive and that they felt like if it was a Disneyland kind of a event here on campus,” Arceo said.
For Arceo, it took months of planning and had a great help with her outreach team to make this event possible. With many programs developing every year, she expects the event to get better and improve every time.
Overall Arceo was pleased and said, “I would like to thank my peer counselors who were fantastic. They were my advisory group, my support and I’m really grateful to have a incredible team that made this event possible.”
